Preseason Week 2 Bills at Bears - Game thread

[Ethan in Cleveland]

28 minutes ago, Special K said:

Shocking that when you don't play the top 25-30 players on your roster, including the league MVP, that the team looked like 💩!!

 

At least some of the rookies flashed on a few plays, but other than that a truly uninspiring performance.

 

Here's where I would put the tape from the game:

 

 

 

Again no one in their right mind cares about how the team did.  It was about depth player development and keeping starters healthy.  Even McD said the back ups basically sucked.  Bishop sucked. Hamlin sucked.  Hancock made a few plays.  

 

This game pretty much affirms what many of us have been saying for a long time.  The S spot is an absolute mess.  To go from Poyer and Hyde to this is awful.  

 

This is the week to say goodbye to Hamlin.  Get the emotion out of it now not the week of the Baltimore game.

 

Bring back Douglas at least until Hairston is healthy.  A  week one CB room of White, Benford, Jackson, Strong and Codrington is a recipe for disaster.  

1 hour ago, Bill51390 said:

Yeah, that was the point I was making. 

It was still 7-0 when most of the Bears starters were out.  So I think what people are saying is that it was not Bears starters 28 - Bills backups 0.  

 

Again no one cares about the score. its the play of guys like Jackson and Hamlin and the rooke DL that is very concerning. 

[hondo in seattle]

In retrospect, I wish I had spent those three hours of my life doing something else - cleaning garbage cans, getting my teeth drilled, anything other than watching that game.  

[jkeerie]

I agree that these backups looked horrid tonight and if this was our starting team, we'd be cooked.  However, hopefully these guys don't see the field, and if they do, they all don't see the field at once.

 

Safety is very concerning, though.

[Mike in Horseheads]

27 minutes ago, sven233 said:

There's not a lot of positive redeeming value to take out of tonight, especially on first watch.  Sure, there are a few things I want to take a look at on the All-22 when it comes out, but for the most part this one is just going to be flushed away.  I'll look at guys like Sanders, Walker, and Jackson a little closer to see how they did, but beyond that, I am not sure anything interests me to look at closer that I didn't see tonight.

 

While the result doesn't matter to me at all, what does matter to me is the overall poor play of the secondary and Andreeson.  As good of instincts as Andreeson seems to have in the run game, it is completely the opposite in the pass game.  He is lost out there and the ball is constantly going over his head for big plays.  He has no spacial awareness in zone coverage and that's a bit problem on a team that loves to play zone.  Last year, I thought he might be a guy that could get us through a game if necessary, but the more he has played, especially in this preseason, I am getting very concerned about the depth at MLB.  We have a nice player Bernard as a starter, but I am beginning to think we are nowhere at the position behind him.  And the secondary play was pretty horrific to say the least.  I hate to hit the panic button in preseason games because there is no game planning.  But the fact is, this team by all accounts wants to run more man coverage this season.  And after what I saw tonight, I am not sure we have the players to do that.  Jackson was awful.  Hairston is hurt and going to be running way behind in terms of reps even when he does come back.  And Tre, while a nice story and a great guy, isn't someone I want lining up in man anyway.  So, I am worried about the depth there, at least until Hairston is healthy and gets his legs under him and enough reps to matter.

 

And this leads me to the Safety position..... Ugh.  I have a bad feeling we are going to be longing for the days of Hyde and Poyer holding it down back there for almost a decade.  Look....I am not like many on here just writing Bishop off yet.  I do think there is some physical talent there, but there's already questions about his health and how much he can play.  The other question is whether or not he will get it mentally and he just hasn't been on the field enough to develop that either.  Hamlin is a fringe backup.  Rapp is a decent player, but he has injury concerns with the way he plays.  Honestly, we just don't have much at the position behind him at this point and that could be a problem.  I mean, a problem to the point where I am ready to bring someone else in.  But is anyone that you can bring in going to pick up the defense in 2-3 weeks enough to make a difference?  I mean, are we going to be desperate enough to bring in a physically shot Poyer that at least knows the defense as depth?  I don't know.  But if I am Beane, I am shopping around for a Safety for sure.

 

There are other things I am going to go back and take a look at as I mentioned, but coming out of this one, it's about MLB and Safety depth for sure.

Love your avatar! 

...Agree Safety is a mess and they have to be looking. Hamlin needs to be sent packing now so he has a chance to catch on if anybody wants him. Can either Hyde or Poyer be a worse pickup at this point. (?) with Milano being a FA after this season I thought they'd draft a replacement, not.

[BigDingus]

And this is why I constantly say I'd rather just invest more in the offense.

 

I don't know how many times I can say it, but spending all the picks & money trying to get the defense right ultimately won't matter as long as McDermott is here. Yes, it's preseason, but this just shows that if any starter goes down (and they will), they have no depth behind them. 

[Buffalo716]

1 hour ago, hondo in seattle said:

In retrospect, I wish I had spent those three hours of my life doing something else - cleaning garbage cans, getting my teeth drilled, anything other than watching that game.  

 football is my life and I literally found any reason to not even watch tonight lol I could care less about all the reactions..  

 

We're talking about we have six or seven open roster spots on our 53... This is not indictive of how our roster will play like opening day 

 

We realistically have 10 guys fighting for six spots.. compare that to the bears who have probably have 30 guys fighting for their NFL job

 

I'd rather not even break this down then worry

Edited Monday at 07:01 AM by Buffalo716

[JerseyBills]

overall it's nothing,  lot of these guys will never see the field,  it's just bit concerning watching our 2nd/3rd stringers get dominated.  Just a year or 2 ago we won every pre season game under McDermott 

 

I would much rather see how the joint practices went 

Edited Monday at 07:10 AM by JerseyBills

[Bills!Win!]

Failure is the pathway to success

[HIT BY SPIKES]

7 hours ago, FloridaSnow said:

Okay, I didn’t want to say it while the guy was here, but Hit is bad luck. The comeback starts now. 

 

I got a little cash set aside and I was wondering if I could invest it with you given your well-honed predictive skills?

[GunnerBill]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

  So I think what people are saying is that it was not Bears starters 28 - Bills backups 0.  

 

 

But it was never an equal fight at any point. Literally the only time all night that it became even was the final Bills drive when Buechele went it and at that point the Bears did give the very bottom of their defensive roster a drive. All night they were playing a team up. 

 

That isn't to excuse the Bills - that was lousy - but it was never even 2s v 2s or 3s v 3s. By the time the Bears went to the 2s the Bills 3s were in and by the time the Bears went to their 3s the Bills were down to as many future shelf stackers as they could find. 

[gonzo1105]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

But it was never an equal fight at any point. Literally the only time all night that it became even was the final Bills drive when Buechele went it and at that point the Bears did give the very bottom of their defensive roster a drive. All night they were playing a team up. 

 

That isn't to excuse the Bills - that was lousy - but it was never even 2s v 2s or 3s v 3s. By the time the Bears went to the 2s the Bills 3s were in and by the time the Bears went to their 3s the Bills were down to as many future shelf stackers as they could find. 

Yup I tried to say the same thing in the thread but no one wants to hear it. The Bears literally had veterans of the NFL who started games like Bagent, Bates etc playing in the game with high upside guys like Burden and Austin Booker in the game versus guys who won’t be here in two weeks . Even starting the game there was a very heavy rotation of bottom of the roster guys playing versus their starters. Bishop and Hamlin were bad but it’s kind of hard to be good when Andreessen was awful in Coverage and Jenkins was the other starting LB who won’t make the team etc 

[MasterStrategist]

7 minutes ago, gonzo1105 said:

Yup I tried to say the same thing in the thread but no one wants to hear it. The Bears literally had veterans of the NFL who started games like Bagent, Bates etc playing in the game with high upside guys like Burden and Austin Booker in the game versus guys who won’t be here in two weeks . Even starting the game there was a very heavy rotation of bottom of the roster guys playing versus their starters. Bishop and Hamlin were bad but it’s kind of hard to be good when Andreessen was awful in Coverage and Jenkins was the other starting LB who won’t make the team etc 

I agree with this, except Dorian was playing majority of snaps with Andreesen.

 

Overall though point remains - and I'd add that having Codrington at nickle really F'd everything (he cant cover at this level). 

[jahnyc]

Seems to me that part of the problem at the safety position is that we do not have a true free safety on the roster with starting capabilities.  I think Rapp, Bishop and Hamlin each fit more of the profile of a traditional strong safety than a free safety.  We need a starting caliber free safety. 

[CirclnWagons]

I take this game for what it was, a statement from a new bears coach at home desperately trying to let Chicago know he has righted the ship against what was mostly buffalos 2nd-3rd even 4th option on the depth chart. Having said that, it’d be foolish to think there shouldn’t be some significant worry here with  our secondary, a few of which will be heavily depended on this season. The drop in talent level between 1 and 2 is devastating on this squad and as we’ve all seen, a lot of these depth guys will be called on getting into the latter weeks of the season. Nothing I saw last night made me feel good about where this team is at. I’ll put away my soap box now 

[mjt328]

Preseason is what it is.  Our starters watched from the sidelines.  Game planning was non-existent.

But last night has to be a sad reality check for anyone who was optimistic this Defense was going to take a huge jump this year.

 

Cole Bishop, Damar Hamlin or possibly both (considering how much Taylor Rapp gets hurt) are going to start a significant number of games this year.  People seemed to be excited about that Darrick Forrest guy, but I don't even know if he makes the team.  If I'm Brandon Beane, my number one priority in the coming week is trading for a solid veteran who can hold down this position.  Right now, safety is a huge liability.  

 

It also doesn't look like any of the young investments we've made in the D-Line are anywhere near ready to contribute.  Which is bad news, considering how much we like to rotate up front (and because everyone knows Joey Bosa won't stay healthy for 17 games).  Maybe we can get a splash play from Deon Walker here and there.  But I haven't seen anything remotely promising from TJ Sanders, Landon Jackson, Javon Solomon or DeWayne Carter.  No pressure.  Out of position.  Getting blown off the ball.  As good as the Bills are with developing other positions (like CB and OL), it's the complete opposite on the D-Line.  I think we need an overhaul in the coaching staff, because we are just spinning our wheels here year after year after year...

 

Expect the media hype around "Buffalo Joe" to take quite a hit this week.  People have been hyping him up like the second coming of Matt Milano.  The guy looked absolutely lost out there.  Hope we can stay healthy at that position (we usually don't though, because we are undersized).  

 

Combine all of this week's mess with how slow/tentative Tre White looked in coverage last week... don't be surprised if 2025 is another season of our Offense carrying an average/below average Defensive unit.  

 

[Desert Bills Fan]

The D line rotation , albeit not the starters, did not look good. No pressure on passing downs and few stops on run plays. I was hoping for a few splash plays of individual effort. Was disappointed.

[mjt328]

32 minutes ago, gonzo1105 said:

Yup I tried to say the same thing in the thread but no one wants to hear it. The Bears literally had veterans of the NFL who started games like Bagent, Bates etc playing in the game with high upside guys like Burden and Austin Booker in the game versus guys who won’t be here in two weeks . Even starting the game there was a very heavy rotation of bottom of the roster guys playing versus their starters. Bishop and Hamlin were bad but it’s kind of hard to be good when Andreessen was awful in Coverage and Jenkins was the other starting LB who won’t make the team etc 

 

People are upset because either Bishop or Hamlin are expected to start at Safety, and both looked terrible.

Epenesa, Jackson, Solomon, Sanders and Walker will be factoring heavily into the D-Line rotation, and all were invisible.

Andreesen and Williams are our primary backups at the often-injured Linebacker position, and all looked lost.

 

The score doesn't matter.  But the fact that all these individuals played like trash is concerning, because all of them will absolutely be playing snaps this year.

 

[Breakout Squad]

10 hours ago, Delete_Delete_Delete said:

I had no idea there was “Tre to safety crap”, sorry to ruffle your feathers there brother. Touchy subject apparently…

 

Unfortunately, team doesn’t have a starting caliber safety.

 

BTW, quite literally prefaced with “too late for a positional switch”.

 

He’s shot at corner.

 

TRYING him out at safety in the offseason would’ve hurt who exactly?

Taken valuable reps away from all world pro Damar Hamlin? Those paid off…

Tre to safety has been talked about so much in the past. Not ruffled just trying to nip it in the bud. 

[gonzo1105]

18 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

 

People are upset because either Bishop or Hamlin are expected to start at Safety, and both looked terrible.

Epenesa, Jackson, Solomon, Sanders and Walker will be factoring heavily into the D-Line rotation, and all were invisible.

Andreesen and Williams are our primary backups at the often-injured Linebacker position, and all looked lost.

 

The score doesn't matter.  But the fact that all these individuals played like trash is concerning, because all of them will absolutely be playing snaps this year.

 

I mean I get it but there’s no gameplan , it’s clear the Bills didn’t care about this game besides getting through it healthy. Multiple good teams have been blown out. The Packers lost by 20 to the Jets and the Chiefs weren’t competitive in week 2 either. We lost by 27 to the Bears just last year and were a mistake or two away from the Super Bowl. They were doing things they will rarely do in the regular season. 

[billsfan89]

I am not putting too much stock into a pre-season game where starters were not played at all and the other team played their starters. I just don't see the need to panic. I will say that I was hoping Cole Bishop would have sealed up the starting safety spot opposite Rapp. Hamlin is not a bad guy to plug and play as a backup but this team may be looking at an in season trade at safety if the production level from Bishop isn't there.